Obama | Romney ||
VisitsBattlegroundBoth campaigns had full ground operations, there was a steady
trickle of visits, and lots of ads. According to the Smart Media
Group the Obama and Romney campaigns and
their allies spent a total of $60 million on the ad war in Nevada,
placing it number seven among the states. Nevada only has two
media markets and the ad rates are relatively cheap so viewers were
bombarded with ads. The Wesleyan Media
Project (>)
reported
that
the
Las
Vegas
media
market
was
the
number
two
media
market
by
volume
of
presidential
ads
in
the
period
from
October
1-29,
trailing
only
Denver.
Nevada's
other
market,
Reno,
was
number
15
(Oct.
1-21)
and
number
12 (Oct. 22-29). In addition to presidential
ads, Nevada viewers also had to endure ads from the hotly contest U.S.
Senate race between Sen. Dean Heller and Rep. Shelley Berkley.Many of the ads were run by
outside groups. Las Vegas resident Sheldon Adelson, the
billionaire chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands, was one of the largest
contributors to the effort to defeat Obama (>).

In terms of visits, in addition to the standard campaign and
fundraising appearances,
President Obama spent three days in Henderson for debate prep. prior to
the first debate, including a break for a tour of Hoover Dam.
National conferences and conventions also drew the candidates:

-National Council of La Raza Annual
Conference in Las Vegas - July 10 Biden
-113th National Convention of the Veterans of
Foreign
Wars of the U.S. in Reno - July 23 Obama, July 24 Romney
-Disabled American Veterans' National Convention in Las Vegas - Aug. 4
Biden
-National Guard Association
Convention in Reno - Sept. 11 Romney

The Down Economy
Throughout 2012, Nevada
had the highest unemployment rate of any state (it was 11.5% in October
and 10.8% in November). In 2012 the state also had the second
highest
rates of home foreclosures in the
country after Florida (Nevada had the highest rate for the preceding
five years).

RealtyTrac produced a Swing State Housing Scorecard (+)
looking
at
five
factors:
average
home
prices,
unemployment,
foreclosure
inventory,
foreclosure
starts
and
percent
of
distressed
sales.
They
concluded:

Nevada is better off compared to four
years ago based on three of the
metrics — decrease in foreclosure inventory, decrease in foreclosure
starts and a decrease in foreclosure sales — while the other two
metrics paint the picture of a housing market that is worse off than
four years ago (average sales price are down 33 percent and
unemployment is up 51 percent).

Could the Libertarian Tip the Balance?Nevada
was one of the states where the Johnson campaign said it could
potentially tip the balance. For example, an Oct. 1, 2012 open
letter from the campaign arguing for inclusion in the presidential
debates stated:

"Libertarian Presidential Candidate
Governor Gary Johnson’s
votes in one or more of the key Tipping Point States – New
Hampshire(4), Virginia(13), North Carolina(15), Florida(29), Ohio(18),
Iowa(6), Nevada(6), and Colorado(9) – could shift as many as 100
Electoral Votes this November 6th …and could determine the outcome of
the 2012 Presidential Election."

The
2012
Libertarian
Convention
was
held
May
4-6,
2012
at
the
Red
Rock
Resort
in
Las
Vegas. In the fall campaign, the Johnson ticket spent a fair bit
of time stumping in the state (Johnson made four visits and Gray
two). However, while they fared substantially better than recent
Libertarian presidential candidates in Nevada, they only managed 1.08
percent of the vote.

Nevada's population of 2,758,931(U.S.
Census
Bureau,
July
1,
2012
est.
+)includes
substantial numbers of Hispanics, veterans and Mormons. Most of
the
population is concentrated in the Las Vegas and Reno areas:

• 27.1% of the state's population is of Hispanic origin
(737,221 of 2,723,322) ...U.S.
Census Bureau, July 1, 2011 est. (+).

• 176,307 adherents to the Mormon Church. ...LDS Church as of Dec. 31,
2011 (+).
• Of 1,257,621 active registered voters 851,803 (67.7%) are in
Clark County and 241,459 (19.2%) are in Washoe County.
...NV Secretary of State as of Oct. 2012.